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LONDON - A crippled freight ship was shedding containers from above deck within sight of the southern English coast today after being deliberately run aground to stop it sinking.
The MSC Napoli, abandoned by its crew after being holed during storms last Friday, was listing at 30 degrees and had already lost more than 200 of its 2,400 containers into the sea, a coastguard spokesman said.
He said about 200 tonnes of fuel oil were thought to have leaked from the ship, but that the risk of significant damage to the environment from the oil or the containers was small.
Some of the containers on board held potentially dangerous materials -- perfume, battery acid and car parts.
Some of the toppled containers had ruptured and several had washed ashore. The coastguard asked the public to stay away -- both for their own safety and to prevent looting.
The ship was refloating at each high tide and still at risk of capsizing, so the two French tug boats accompanying it were trying to drag it further inshore to prevent that possibility.
Once it is firmly beached, the ship will be flooded to prevent further movement and the 3,000 tonnes of fuel oil in the tanks will be pumped out to avoid further pollution. The coastguard spokesman said this operation should begin today.
Then floating cranes and flat-bottomed barges will be brought in to offload the containers.
The British-flagged Napoli, built in 1991, was bound from Belgium to Portugal when it was holed. Its 26 crew took to a lifeboat, from which they were winched to safety by a helicopter.
In 2001 the same ship, then named the Normandie, ran onto a coral reef in the Strait of Malacca between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, heavily loaded and at full speed.
It remained stuck fast for several weeks before being towed away for repairs that included welding more than 3,000 tonnes of metal onto the hull.
- REUTERS
